The Laredo Rattlesnakes were a professional indoor football team in the

Lone Star Football League The Lone Star Football League (LSFL) was a regional professional indoor football minor league that played three seasons from 2012 to 2014. All of the LSFL's charter teams were based in the state of Texas, with five teams coming from the Souther ...

that began play in the 2012 season. Based in

Laredo, Texas Laredo ( ; ) is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Webb County, Texas, Webb County, on the north bank of the Rio Grande in South Texas, across from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Founded in 1755, Laredo grew from a villag ...

, the Rattlesnakes played their home games at the

Laredo Energy Arena The Sames Auto Arena (formerly known as the Laredo Entertainment Center and Laredo Energy Arena) is a multi-purpose arena in Laredo, Texas. It is located next to Bob Bullock Loop (US 59/Loop 20), on the northeastern side of Laredo. Within the Sam ...

. Previously, the Rattlesnakes had been announced as members of the

Southern Indoor Football League The Southern Indoor Football League (SIFL) was an indoor football league based in the Southern and Eastern United States. The most recent incarnation of the league was a consolidation of an earlier league of the same name that was formed by Thom ...

along with the two other franchises owned by Chad Dittman, the

Rio Grande Valley Magic The Rio Grande Valley Magic were a professional indoor football team based in Hidalgo, Texas. The Magic were charter members of the Lone Star Football League (LSFL) in 2012, after playing as an expansion team in the Southern Indoor Football Leag ...

and the

Corpus Christi Hammerheads Corpus (plural ''corpora'') is Latin for "body". It may refer to: Linguistics * Text corpus, in linguistics, a large and structured set of texts * Speech corpus, in linguistics, a large set of speech audio files * Corpus linguistics, a branch of ...

. However, in the press conference announcing the team's logos and color scheme, Dittman says that a deal to team up with other Texas teams for a brand-new league is "99 percent" done. That deal was reached in the form of the

, of which the Rattlesnakes were a charter member. The Rattlesnakes were the third indoor/arena football team based in Laredo; previous indoor teams included the Laredo Law of

af2 The AF2 (often styled as af2, and short for arenafootball2) was the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like its parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football r ...

(which only played the 2004 season before folding) and the

Laredo Lobos The Laredo Lobos were a professional arena football team based out of Laredo, Texas. They were a member of the af2 league. They played their home games at the Laredo Entertainment Center. The team was originally a 2006 expansion member of th ...

of the Intense Football League and later af2 (which played the

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

and

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

seasons in these respective leagues before folding). Originally, the team was called the Laredo Rattlers, however, the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 Arena Football League season, 1987 season, making it the third longest-runnin ...

issued a cease-and-desist letter to the team because of the existing

Arizona Rattlers The Arizona Rattlers are a professional indoor American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area that competes in the Indoor Football League (IFL). The Rattlers were founded in 1992 as an expansion team in the Arena Football League ...

. The Rattlesnakes folded following the 2013 season due to the financial and legal issue faced by the team's owner. The team's equipment was auctioned to the public in late November 2013 and the team formally dissolved.

Roster

Season-by-season

, - , 2012 , , 6 , , 6 , , 0 , , 4th , , Lost LSFL Semi-Final (47–50 vs.

Magic Magic or magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces ** ''Magick'' (with ''-ck'') can specifically refer to ceremonial magic * Magic (illusion), also known as sta ...

) , - , 2013 , , 8 , , 4 , , 0 , , 2nd , , Won LSFL Semi-Final (61-56 vs.

Stars A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by self-gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night; their immense distances from Earth make them appear as fixed points of ...

)
Lost Lone Star Bowl II (69–70 vs.

Venom Venom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action. The toxin is delivered through a specially evolved ''venom apparatus'', such as fangs or a sti ...

) , -

References

External links

Laredo Rattlesnakes official website
{{SIFL Former Lone Star Football League teams American football teams in Texas Sports in Laredo, Texas Defunct American football teams in Texas American football teams established in 2011 American football teams disestablished in 2013 2011 establishments in Texas 2013 disestablishments in Texas